


Always Soaring

by phyrestorm



Category: The Passage Series - Justin Cronin
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-09-13 09:31:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9117868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phyrestorm/pseuds/phyrestorm
Summary: From April to Alicia: Episodes in the lives of the Donadio family





	1. Chapter 1

YEAR 1

 

April was screaming. Why was April screaming?

Danny didn't like when people screamed, but he liked April. April was smart and confident and logical.

Momma was gone. Mr. Purvis was gone. Mr. Kittridge was gone. Mrs. Bellamy, Mr. Wood... almost everyone who used to ride his bus was gone. But April was still here, and she always had a plan.

But now April was screaming and clutching her big stomach.

"DANNY!" she yelled.

Yes, April?

"GODDAMMIT DANNY THE BUS IS DEAD! EVERYONE IS DEAD! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!"

Rude. That was rude! April wasn't usually rude!

April panted and groaned.

"Danny...Daniel? I'm sorry. I--"

"Danton."

"What?"

"Danton. Not Daniel. Danton William Chayes."

She stared at him, panting and sweaty and beautiful, then cried out as a dark stain formed between her legs and sloshed over the floor of the bus.

"Ohhh...AAAARGH!! Danny, I MEAN it! Fucking RUN!"

He couldn't run. He couldn't even stand. The fire yesterday had fused his legs to the driver's seat. He couldn't move them or feel them. They were getting stinky, actually.

She was crying now. He didn't like when people cried.

She screamed again, bit the back of her own hand, then got a funny look on her face and waddled over to him, lurching and bracing herself on the back of his seat when she arrived.

He didn't like when people talked right in his ear, but he let her.

Yes, April.

Yes, April.

You're welcome, April.

Goodbye, April.

She fled, stumbling, crawling, cursing her son for his shitty fucking timing. 

Danny watched until she was out of sight, swallowed in the dimming marsh.

The sun dipped below the horizon. 

The gun had ten bullets in it. Nine for them and one for you, Danny. Do you understand?

Yes, April. 

But that's not what I'm going to do.

Danny held April's pistol in both hands, aimed carefully, and fired. Ten perfect shots through the sweet spot, precisely.

He had just enough time to wonder if April's baby would be good and quiet like Boy Jr. before the eleventh viral came through the windshield and took his head off.


	2. Chapter 2

YEAR 13

 

Bernard Timothy Donadio chuckled. His brothers were SO stupid. They always picked the marshy side of the island, leaving the huts and most of the fields for him and Karrie, and they always lost. Well, almost always. There was that one time he had a cold and Dan got the drop on him because of his sneezing, but Karrie still managed to peg Jamie thirty seconds later, so that hardly counted.

"Bernie! Shush!" Karrie hissed from behind him.

Bernie shushed. It wasn't just that Karrie, at almost 14, was bigger, stronger, faster, and perfectly capable of slapping the crap out of him if he screwed this up. It was because of the secret they shared, the memory of that night. Two nights, actually, not quite a week apart. Something Jamie and Dan had heard all about but would never understand because they were safe in the tower when it happened. Bernie would not, could not ever let his stepsister down because she had saved his life.

It was Bernie's oldest memory. Patchy and wavery after over seven years, confused in the first place because he wasn't even five and the whole thing woke him up, but he'd never forget the important parts. 

Shouts. Gunfire. His stepdad's smile, big white teeth always a surprising contrast to his scarred brown face and tattooed arms. His hand tousling little Bernie's blond curls. The green glow. People-not-people leaping, flowing up and over the fence. His mother yanking him by the arm, shoving him into the hut, pressing a knife into his hand...

"Psst! Look!"

Bernie looked where Karrie was pointing. There was Dan, trying and failing to be sneaky, creeping across the compound toward them.

Karrie grinned.

"Weapons ready, soldier?"

Bernie held up his sack of water balloons.

"Yes, ma'am!"

Karrie shouldered her gigantic water gun, a ridiculous relic from the Time Before, and took off across the compound at a sprint, Bernie right behind her.

"YAAAAHHHH!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! DIE, VAMPS!!!!"

Dan was drenched in seconds. Jamie made a run for it, but Bernie chased him down and stuffed a big, leaky water balloon down the back of his shirt as he shrieked.

"Oh, for the love of--BERNARD!"

Oh shit! Mom!

"Jamal! Danton! Get in here if you want to eat! You too, Kareema--DON'T bring that thing in my house, young lady!"

Not many people talked back to Mayor Donadio. Kareema Abdul was one of them.

"Jeez, Ma April, it's just a water gun."

"Yeah, and I don't need it dripping all over my floor! Leave it outside if you want your sandwich."

For a moment, Bernie thought Karrie was going to leave just to prove a point, but then she saw Jamie eyeing her sandwich and hunger won out over defiance.

Bernie thought he saw his mother's stern face crack into a smile as she left the room.

April Donadio gave her kids the two minutes she figured it would take them to devour their lunches, an extra thirty seconds to let the twins start to get bored and antsy, then returned and dumped an assault rifle on the table in front of them.

"So," she said, looking around at her now-silent, rapt audience. "I've seen you four playing, and none of you can shoot for shit. Would you like to learn?"


	3. Chapter 3

YEAR 26

April brushed grey-streaked brown hair out of her eyes and smiled up through her tears.

"Welcome home, Kareema."

The creature cocked its head, blinked, seemed to fidget for a moment. Then it launched itself at April, who raised her pistol and met her stepdaughter with the same gift the girl herself had given her father, the second love of April's life, twenty years ago.

The body was heavy. It took April almost a full minute to get it off her and stand up.

"Mom? Mom!"

It was Bernie on the radio. 

"Mom, we're on shore! I've got Moe and Sibby's right with me! No vamps in sight! I don't see Dan now but he was swimming--there he is, there he is! We made it! Where are you?!"

April couldn't see the bite on her neck, but she could feel it. Aching, burning. Behind her, the fangs of the creature that had been Kareema dripped with blood.

"Son, I love you so much. Your father would be so proud."

"MOM?! MOM, N--"

"Shut UP! We don't have time for this shit! Take Dan and your family and GO! North, then West. California. There's a place there. FEMA's last resort for kids from Philly. My cousins went there in Year 2. Godspeed."

April flicked off the radio.

Last Stand On Key Pawnee, signing off.

She took out six with her pistol and three more with her knives before she felt the change begin.

"I'm coming, Bernard," she whispered, then plunged her longest blade into her own heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, April's cousins were on THAT train. In the 14th car, to be exact.
> 
> Boom.


End file.
